use the search function on the site. this has been gone over many times. in short, your bike will turn in faster. the rear will be a bit taller. its basically a "bigger" version of the 180/55/17. on the street i honestly dont know if you will notice much of a difference. i switched to a 190/55 and like it a lot.

here is my take on it... theoretically the taller rear tire will make it turn in quicker like stated above, but, I think of it like this... the manufacturer has set the bike geometry for a reason. the rake and trail and tire sizes are a certain size for a reason, and for the msot part thats what i stick with. especially for street riding. i may have different advise if you were gonna be on the track. On brand, it appears to be preference as long as you stick with a "big" brand. I am not a huge fan of the Dunlop tires. I jsut got pilot power 2ct for my k5 but have 0 miles on them yet. have bridgestone battle ax 016 on my 93 750 and those grip pretty good.

190/50 is what comes with the bike as stock size so it'll do the job. I use the 190/55 on my trackbikes, works well on a 5.5 inch rim. Tyres, I like Michelin PP's. They're a good all round tyre, have been around for years and haven't changed much since introduced. That says alot about this tyre alone.

I have run a lot of the 180-55's on the stern of my skoot, they are larger in diameter than the 190-50's and put a wee bit more rubbrt on the road when driving straight ahead., if yer not doing track time, try um, moi likes um.. the Mich 2CT's good rubber.
If yer in the southern part of 'Espania", dont miss the road to Ronda, orgasmic trail, it is..

lol "why would you mess with how the bike comes from the factory, SUZUKI knows best"

I love these statements. You can make small changes to a bikes geometry and still be OK. 190/55 will turn in better, AND put down more meat while leaned over. Most race tires don't even come in 190/50 anymore.

Don't be afraid to tweak things, as long as you know where they were originally set.

The profile is a bit different, nothing drastic, but new tires from squared off are going to give you a lot of the "tipy" feeling back, if you go to a 55 it will be exagerated a bit from both the profile and the geometery change that comes with the taller rear, unless you compensate by raising the front up to compensate.

190/55's didnt exist as a road tyre when the K5/6 came out as far as I can remember. Anyways the differences are (as have been previously mentioned):

- Bigger diameter & circumference tyre
- More side grip (where you need it on these things)
- Faster steering & better feel when cranked over

Fitting this tyre will make these changes to you bikes geometry & behaviour:

- Larger diameter tyre has the effect of raising the rear by about 5mm which in itself will quicken the steering as it raises the bikes angle of attack & sharpen the geometry. Not a bad things as most Jap bikes are set up conservatively so no need to alter you bike setup.

- As the tyre is larger & thus has a bigger circumference it will have the same effect of reducing you gearing at the rear by 1 tooh approx. This will mean a smidge less acceleration in each gear (hardly noticeable) but will also change your speedo calibration slightly with it becoming more accurate (these bikes tend to over read 5-10%) so you will have less grace with the Gatso cameras, etc. If you are near a chain & sprocket change best go up a tooh on the rear to return the bike to its status quo or even just order the K7/8 rear sprocket which has 1 tooh more (43 vs 42 on the K5/6)

- The 190/55 tyre is a sharper profile tyre (more of a V shape instead of a U for the 190/50 models) so steering is also sharpened due to this fact as well as the taller diameter. Basically the bike will be more eager to steer, will be lighter to steer & will steer more naturally. I dont feel there are any bad points compared to a 190/55 in this regard. Also all 600cc bikes (slightly narrower 180/55 tyre but same profile basically) & almost all newer 1000's use this profile variant so you can rest assure that the 190/55 is old tech basically. MotoGP bikes use a 16.5" wheel which lets the tyre be an even sharper profile (200/65 perhaps??). In a nutshell the 190/55 tyre is a better profile for steering a sport motorcycle.

Now to all the people that say the the K5/6 is designed to run with 190/50 so that what you should stick with that theory is laughable. If that was the case then you should only fit the manufacture type & model no. tyre that you bike came with as these 190/50 nos. are only reference nos. & all manufacturers of tyres have different widths, shapes, profiles even with these nos. Hell even some Manufacturer tyres have different tyre designation for specific bikes within the same size grouping.

Snowblind I've run the PP2Ct in 190/55 variant on my K6 & many other bikes (2006 CBR1000RR for example) with no negative issues & a better feeling/steering bike overall. It is a very good change to make IMHO.

If that doesnt convince you now even the sports touring tyres are coming in 190/55 sizes....

x2 on what KK said. I ran a 190/55 on my old 04 cr 1000rr (street and tack, then just street). went thru 3 sets of 2cts. the bike LOVED the 55 rear tire, and i liked the turn-in feel of it. i also did some rear suspension tweaks (2007 rear shock, 2007 HRC linkage and dog bone), went +3 rear sprocket (+1 tooth was to compensate for the 50/55 tire change), and had the bike suspension set up.

Just reviving an old post. I fitted a 190/55/17 rear wheel after reading through this post and the ride feels heaps better on the corners..I can feel the bike holding the corners better/ steady. Turn in is effortless making the bike feel lighter than it is. Next steps will be to check how much the speedometer is off by.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Suzuki GSX-R Motorcycle Forums Gixxer.com forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.